the buffalo was to the Plains Indian.
currently lives in Fairbanks. But she came
home for whaling because she likes the ex
citement of the hunt and is much sought
after as a cook.
Her brother, Gussy Kowunna, Jr., 13, was
our "boy." Ester wrote a note to his teacher
that read simply, "Gussy is excused to go
whaling." He would be on the ice six weeks,
and his was the hardest lot of all. He fetched
and carried, tended the stove all night, and
did all the dirty work. As an apprentice
whaler, he would get a man-size share of the
kill and could hope to take his place at a
paddle next year.
Women's lot was generally not exciting,
but we were an important support team. We
turned out endless meals of caribou stew,
boiled polar bear, muktuk, and eider duck.
It was also our job to cut blubber for the
stove, baby-sit the dog team, and carry meals
to our men keeping watch at the water's edge.
Day after day passed with no success for
our crew. We watched the men go out and
followed them with our eyes until they van
ished on the horizon. Hour after hour we
waited, until one day, far off, we heard the ech
oing cheers of our men and five other crews.
We cheered and yelled back, laughed and
cried and hugged one another. The tension
was gone at last. It was the first time in two
weary weeks on the ice that we women had
really laughed. True, another crew had spot
ted and struck the whale first, but our men
had helped in the kill, earning us a share.
David Stone of Point Hope
Sharon Orr of Northeast Cape
"How much does a whale weigh?" I asked
the captain of my crew.
"Why, up to 60 tons," he said. "And we will
use every bit of it, too. Everything but the
liver and lungs, which will go to the dogs."
I remembered the captain's words as I
listened to Point Hope hunter David Stone
speak at the Senate committee hearing:
"The 1970 state manpower survey showed
64 percent of Point Hope's population had an
annual income under $3,000, and the cost of
living is double that of Seattle. Any money
that can be gained from our use of sea-mam
mal products is sorely needed."
Although, after Barrow, it is the largest
whaling community in the state, Point Hope
produced just 4,000 pounds of muktuk for
sale to other Eskimo villages last season,
Stone testified. At $2 per pound, the average
return per villager was $23.52.
And what of the bowhead? Are the Eski
mos a threat to the species?
Dr. G. Carleton Ray, marine mammalogist
from the Johns Hopkins University, says, "It
looks very much as if the bowhead is in
creasing in numbers. The Eskimos certainly
do not pose a danger to these animals."
Last October the pleas of the Eskimos paid
off. The President signed into law the Marine
Mammal Protection Act, including an ex
emption for Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts,
permitting them to hunt in their age-old ways
and to market the handicrafts made from
their catch.
O
355